The 1981 Bluecoats: US Open Champions

1981 Bluecoats

Program

Join the Circus – from the musical Barnum (C. Coleman)

Aquarius (G. MacDermot)

Encore in Jazz (R. Brown)

Porgy and Bess Medley (G. Gershwin)

Season Synopsis: After getting the feet back in the pool in 1980, the Bluecoats dove in head first in 1981. The new year was greeted with new horns, courtesy of the VFW, Floyd Hughes Post 693 which dropped a healthy $15,000 on the corps for the equipment. Two very significant “firsts” helped keep the corps on this new path. After winning the Class A championships at the renowned U.S. Open in Marion, Ohio, corps director Tom Jakmides sent a letter to members that the corps would never again compete in Class A and forever forward would be an Open Class (today World Class) corps. Two weeks later the corps became the first Ohio corps to make a Regional Final at DCI North. Placing 9th in prelims to advance to the night Finals show, the Bluecoats managed a 2nd place sub-caption score right behind the show’s champion Santa Clara Vanguard in General Effect Percussion.

The corps also made its television debut, as the Toledo Key to the Sea contest was aired on local TV and recorded by member families. While the goal of the corps was to place in DCI’s coveted top 25, falling short did not dampen the spirit of a corps that finished the season very much stronger than it started. During the off-season going into 1982, the corps strengthened its WinterGuard International (WGI) program, titled Bluecoats Pageantry Ensemble (BPE) that competed at WGI Championships in Nashville, Tennessee.